Influence of Iron, Zinc, and Copper Nanoparticles on Some Growth Indices of Pepper Plants

Abstract

This paper presents the results of studies on the effect of iron, zinc, and copper nanoparticles (NPs) introduced into a Murashige and Skoog (MS) nutrient medium instead of metal salts on the chlorophyll content in leaves and the length and activity of the roots of the Capsicum annuum pepper plants grown under aseptic conditions. It is shown that the length of the roots of plants grown on a nutrient medium with metal nanoparticles, depending on the dose of NPs and element, is 7‒118% higher than in plants grown on a standard nutrient medium. The activity of the roots of the test plants is 18‒98% higher than the activity of plant roots from the control group. The chlorophyll content in the leaves of pepper grown on a medium with iron and copper nanoparticles is 3‒59% higher than the amount of chlorophyll in plants grown on a standard MS medium. The effective concentrations of iron NPs (3.0, 0.3, and 0.06 mg/L) introduced into the nutrient medium are 1.9, 18.7, and 93.3 times lower, respectively, than the concentration of iron in the ionic form (in terms of metal) contained in standard MS medium; the concentration of zinc NPs (0.4, 0.08, and 0.016 mg/L) is 4.9, 24.5, and 122.5 times less than the concentration of zinc ions in terms of metal in MS; and the concentration of copper NPs (0.004, 0.0008, and 0.00016 mg/L) is 1.6, 8.0, and 40.0 times less than the concentration of copper in terms of copper ions in the standard MS medium.